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    BHAGAVAD GITA ON MEDITATION

    Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, v.66

    The inattentive (preoccupied, contracted) mind cannot have direct

    understanding. It also cannot have connection with direct, immediate actuality

    flowing in awareness or no meditation. For the mind unconnected to the flow of

    immediate actuality or for the unmeditative mind, there is also no real peace.

    How can there be happiness for the unpeaceful mind?

    ayuktasya (To the inattentive mind), nasti (not exist), buddhir (comprehension,

    understanding); na cha (not also) ayuktasya (for the inattentive mind) bhavana

    (flowing with direct, immediate actuality in awareness or meditation); na cha (not

    also), abhavayatah (to the mind unconnected to the flow of actuality or to the

    unmeditative mind), shantir (peace, poise, serenity); ashantasya (to the unpeaceful),

    kutah (wherefrom), sukham (joy, bliss, plenitude).

    COMMENTS:

    So can we say that the quality of the mind's attentiveness is a crucial factor in

    understanding, in connecting to the flow of existence and consciousness, in

    experiencing restful peace and happiness?

    Can we say that attentiveness means being open to whatever is happening now,

    immediately in existence and consciousness?

    Can we say that any focus of attention is a form of exclusion, of contraction, of

    fragmentation in attentiveness and thus creates a movement away from real and direct

    understanding?

    Can we say that direct understanding through immediate attentiveness leads to real

    sense of connectivity (yoga-yoking) between existence and consciousness, which

    manifests as the flow of love from open consciousness to everything it embraces?

    Can we say that any focus or contraction of attention is a doing, whereas therelaxation, resting and letting-go in attention is a de-contraction, a happening that

    immediately creates openness to the flow of life and provides a sense of peacefulness

    in the body and wholeness in consciousness?

    How can attentiveness to actuality lead to direct understanding? By being open andattentive to whatever is happening to and through this body-mind complex and its

    relationship to everything, the mind is receptive, sensitive and perceptive.... There isthen direct, immediate seeing and learning, essential for understanding, not through

    the web of thoughts and theories, not through the lens borrowed from others. It is a

    direct immediate connection of mind to the flow of existence, both (a) as experienced

    externally through the naturally-endowed instruments or organs of experience and (b)

    as experienced and processed internally through mental processes such as memories,

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    emotions, thoughts, desires, fears, beliefs, impulses, stress, values, ratiocination,

    needs, etc. So in the space of attention, the mind is able to see its operations and inner

    processes clearly and this seeing brings actual understanding. Is that so?

    Let us take a fresh look in attentive observation. Bodily/sensory instruments

    (extensions of the brain) are capturing sensory inputs/stimuli from outside the body

    and from the body itself. This is happening without any one doing anything to trigger

    the capturing into motion.

    Breath is moving in and out naturally without a conscious breather or operator

    deciding anything about the breath. Breathing just happens!

    In the space of the attentive mind, thoughts pop up by themselves, flow and disappear

    without any one thinking the thoughts, without a thinker. The flow of thoughts carries

    along words, memories, emotions, desires, meanings, etc. The flow of thoughts

    usually distracts attention from the actual external sensory experiencing as it absorbs

    the space and energy of the mind.

    So in attentive awareness, there is happening of movements in experiencing and of

    arisings in consciousness. There are sensory occurrences as well as mental arisings

    taking place concurrently in a natural way in the space of experiencing.

    At any moment, the flow of thoughts may create a centre of reference, a point of

    reference, a "thinker" or "doer" or "feeler" or "experiencer" thought, together with the

    cohort of words, memories, emotions, desires, projections, meanings, etc. But this

    centre of reference is nothing but a thought operating on the flow of consciousness

    and talking about something in particular. It is nothing but a flow of words, images

    and emotions moving from memory into conscious attention of the mind.

    The flow of thoughts from memory projects the centre by identifying with a given

    fragment of the body-mind complex and communicating from that fragmented and

    segregated position in the flow; it usually talks to the flow or to other fragments of the

    flow. Its function is purely recalling and communicating through that recollection as a

    way of explaining things to itself through words and concepts. It is just a creation ofthe mind believing itself to be a real entity through monopolising and absorbing the

    energy of the mind and its processes.

    So, would it be correct to say that in attentive observation or observant attention,

    seeing/knowing/experiencing happens instantly and direct understanding happenswithout any self-talking involving identification, fragmentation, segregation and

    conceptualisation?

    Now, let us see: where does this direct knowing permeating the attentive mind draw

    its energy from? It draws its energy from awareness of pure enlightening beingness,

    which is the energy of the universal Life animating this organism and the whole of

    existence. The enlightening Light illuminates the mind, which is the seat of all

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    of illusions or liberation); munir (person established in silent contemplation) yah

    (who) sada (ever) mukta (liberated) eva (certainly) sah (he or she).

    COMMENT:

    This meditation is not a struggling with oneself, not an escape from life and its

    complexities but a celebration of wholeness, of holiness of our true being.

    So attentiveness in the present moment of the universe - immediate understanding

    through direct attentive observation - connection with the immediate total flow of life

    and consciousness or meditation - destruction of illusion through seeing and

    understanding in meditation - peace - plenitude - lasting liberation.

    Gita on Deluded Egoism

    Gita 3.27: Deluded egoism (illusion of doership, experiencership)

    Prakriteh (By dynamic natural force in the universe) kriyamanani (are initiated and

    performed) gunair (through the natural dispositions or patterns) karmani (actions,

    occurrences) sarvashah (everywhere) ahamkara (egoism) vimudhatma (deluded mind)

    kartaham (I am doer) iti (thus) manyate (believes).

    Everywhere the established patterns of Natural Forces initiate and perform all

    actions and occurrences in the universe. But deluded by egoism or self-

    centredness (thought identifying with elements of nature-generated and sustained

    body-mind resulting in a false sense of ownership and segregating those elements

    from the rest of the universe), one believes and thinks "I am the doer".

    Gita 3.28: Realisation of truth about patterns and action in prakriti:

    Tattvavit tu (but realising the underlying real principle) mahabaho (O mighty armed)

    gunakarma (patterns in actions and occurrences) vibhagayoh (of divisions, aspects);guna (conditioned natural instruments of experience) guneshu (conditioned objects of

    experience) vartanta (remain) iti (this, thus) matva (recognising, understanding) na

    (not) sajjate (get addicted or hooked to)

    But the one who has realised the truth, underlying the conditioned patterns ofnature and the actions or occurrences springing from such conditionings, does

    not get deluded through attachment thanks to the understanding that

    instruments of experience are naturally conditioned to restrictively capture and

    dwell on certain conditioned objects of experience as a matter of stimulus and

    response.

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    Gita 3.33- Every action & reaction is conditioned by natural forces and patterns.

    sadrisham (in accordance with) cheshtate (act, behave) svasyah (personal) prakriter

    (natural disposition) gnyanavan (wise one) api (even); prakritim (nature) y...anti

    (obey, follow) bhutani (beings) nigraha (detachment, restraint) kim (what) karishyati

    (will do)

    Even a wise person acts and behaves in accordance with their conditioned

    natural dispositions. All beings follow the dictates of natural patterns and

    conditionings. So where does the question of practiced detachment or self-

    restraint arise? (Nature is all-powerful and dictates everything).

    MEDITATION PRACTICE (Chapter 6: For those who need it)

    6.10. Let the yogi constantly practice meditative attunement by staying alone and

    undistracted in a private place, without entertaining any hopes and expectations,without hankering after anything..., with the movements of consciousness (in

    imagination and body) completely relaxed.

    6.11-12. In a clean place, neither too high nor too low, a seat for oneself is to be

    made with grass covered by skin and cloth (or as per convenience). Steadily

    seated on it, the yogi should be meditatively attuned to pure undifferentiated

    awareness, with the movements of imagination and bodily sensations

    (consciousness) completely relaxed and with the mind being one with the

    forward-moving moment(of actual experiencing).

    6.13-14. Maintaining body, head and neck along a straight line and motionless,maintaining the vision at the root of the nose without looking around (third eye:so rotate the eyes clockwise and anticlockwise for a minute and let it rest naturally

    between the eyebrows), fearless, serene, silent in mind, established in gathering the

    scattered energy of attention, let him settle in the awareness of I AM as his

    highest being.

    6.15. With the mind withdrawn from conscious activity and always attuned to the

    self-effulgent awareness, the yogi rests in peace, which is supreme emptiness of

    all contents of consciousness and establishment in pure I AM or Being.

    6.18. When the attention of the relaxed/surrendered consciousness remainsestablished in Pure Being alone, when it is free from longing for all objects of

    self-centred pleasure- this state is said to be spiritual attunement or communion.

    6.20. That state in which the movements of consciousness come to rest through

    resorting to yoga (of attunement), in which the seeing of the Self-existent Light

    through undivided attention provides spiritual joy

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    6.21. ...in which the yogi experiences a transcendent bliss, beyond the grasp of the

    sensory instruments of experience but intuitively reflected by the silent intellect,

    established in which, one does not move away from the underlying truth

    6.22. ...which having realised, no other gain or attainment is considered as

    superior and remaining in which one is not afflicted by the greatest of sorrows

    6.23. ...know this disconnecting from the connection to sorrow as what has been

    described as yoga. It has to be approached with earnestness and without

    depression of spirits (joyfully).

    6.24-25. Letting-go completely of all the imagination-born longings, gathering

    energies scattered all around by sensory and mental activities, steadily resting the

    attentive mind on Being through the silent intellect, one relaxes (into Being) little

    by little by not getting involved in thinking of anything at all.

    6.26. From whatsoever direction or object, the wavering and inattentive mindwanders away from actual experiencing, it is to be observed, recalled and put to

    rest in Being alone.

    6.27. Transcendental joy wells up in a yogi, whose mind is poised, whose impulses

    are at rest, whose intellect is free from false notions (intellectual impurities) and

    whose heart is united with the Non-dual Undifferentiated Awareness (Brahma-

    bhutam).

    6.28. Thus, ever involved in mindful awareness and attunement and free from the

    impure notions, the yogi enjoys the intense bliss or joy of union with non-dual

    Being.

    6.29. One having spiritual insight through yoga, when established in

    undifferentiated awareness, sees the One Being underlying all particular entities

    and all particular entities as resting in the One Being.

    MEDITATION AT TIME OF DEATH (Chapter 8)

    8.9-10. The person who, endowed with enlightened devotion, contemplates, at the

    time of death with an unwavering attention, having through the power of yogasettled his life force/breath in between the eyebrows, on the inner Being, which is

    ever-knowing, original, subtler than the smallest particle, sustaining and

    directing everything, self-effulgent like the sun beyond the darkness of

    unconsciousness /ignorance- that person merges into the Supreme Enlightening

    Being.

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    8.12-13. Withdrawing mental attention from the sensory outlets, settling the

    attentive mind into the heart, gathering ones life-breath/ vital energy into the

    head, established in yogic absorption, intoning the monosyllable Om, denoting

    Brahman (Transcendent Being) while recognizing It as the I AM. Thus,

    departing from this body, one reaches the Highest Destination.

    SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITATION & LIMITATION

    6.46. A yogi involved in spiritual attunement or meditation is better than those

    involved in austerity or penance,those involved in the accumulation and mastery

    of knowledge as well as those involved i...n rituals and ceremonies. Therefore, be

    a yogi, O Arjuna!

    12.12. Seeking knowledge for understanding is superior to practices and rites.

    Meditation is better than accumulation of knowledge. Even better than

    meditation is the ability to abandon attachment to the fruits of actions done withthe egoic sense of doership. Immediately after relinquishing the sense of

    doership, peace ensues.

    [email protected]

    Koosraj KORA VENCIAH 20.11.2010